Mapping Mental Health Resources for Young People Living in a Conflict Con-text at The Colombian Pacific Region

This project is about what happens to the mental health of people, particularly young people, when they have been exposed to conflict and violence for a long time.

We know a lot about PTSD and what that can do to former combatants, but there are a lot of other mental health issues that can affect young people as a result of violence itself, or the stress of existing in a conflict situation. At the minute there is gap in understanding here between the experience on the ground and the large studies done by centralised health providers that concentrate on formal, clinical records of mental health. What we want to do is to involve social science together with clinical approaches and to move away from the urban areas where there are available formal records. Most conflicts happen in the countryside and yet these rural areas are frequently neglected in terms of service provision. This is certainly the case in Colombia where there are big inequalities between urban and rural areas and across regions.

Young people find it very hard to integrate in to society after experiencing mental health issues after violence and conflict. These issues including depression, other mental disorders and psychosocial problems related specifically to young people, have been largely ignored. This may be particularly serious in contexts where local social and community environments have been degraded or undermined, there have been breaches of human rights, or where there are limited economic opportunities as a result of conflict. The Pacific Region was one of the most conflict-affected areas, has some of the highest rates of poverty in Colombia, is primarily rural, and continues to have high rates of mental health as a result of ongoing exposure to violence.

This research takes an innovative approach in three ways: it explicitly links the local, the meso and the macro levels, recognising that much mental health care, such as it is, exists at the local level and that is where there may be an opportunity for effective intervention; it represents co-production both between Colombian and UK teams, but also with civil society organisations at the local level; and it uses an innovative mixed methods approach linking social science and clinical approaches to mental health. This means that we can links SDG3 on Health and Well Being with SDG16 on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, specifically through addressing mental health as a form of exclusion in societies affected by conflict. An integral element of the Sustainable Development Goals is inclusion of marginalised groups, and those suffering from mental health issues are among the most marginalised, often resulting from behavioural problems, substance abuse or depression

The result of these approaches will provide initial evidence to focus policy and services in order to try and reduce inequalities in access to health care, and to provide evidence to improve the provision of mental health services in order for young people to have better opportunities and face a lower risk of remaining in poverty. The development of an integrated model of working for formal mental health care services in partnership with community services will support conflict-affected young people's mental health needs. This will be the first research project of its kind in Colombia focusing on youth mental health and integrated service development and has excellent potential for application in other areas going through similar transitions after conflict.